Bill Reynolds: How much is enough for baseball’s free agents?

Friday

Nov 15, 2013 at 6:41 PM

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:The gap between professional athletes and the people who buy the tickets keeps getting bigger and bigger, as the 13 major-leaguers facing free agency — each of whom received a guaranteed...

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:

The gap between professional athletes and the people who buy the tickets keeps getting bigger and bigger, as the 13 major-leaguers facing free agency — each of whom received a guaranteed one-year, $14.1-million qualifying offer — declined to take it. All figure they will make more in the open market.

Is it ever going to end?

Makes you wonder.

“Big Papi” has become America’s guest, getting more TV face time than Ellen.

Yeah, Terry Francona had a great year in Cleveland, but how can you be John Farrell and go from last to first and not be the manager of the year?

Richie Incognito was better when he was incognito.

And the General Assembly would be better if they were more incognito, too.

QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Miguel Cabrera was named the MVP of the American League for the second straight year. Who was the last American League player to win back-to-back MVP awards? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)

LINE OF THE WEEK comes from ex-NFL coach Mike Ditka on ESPN’s pregame football show: “If I was the coach, I wouldn’t have either Incognito, the bully, or the baby, Martin, on my team.”

LINE OF THE WEEK II is the classic from Satchel Paige: “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

LINE OF THE WEEK III comes from Edward Mazze, a marketing professor and former dean of the College of Business Administration at URI, on the Rhode Island economy: “We’re closer to neutral than to drive.”

Brad Stevens is going to be an excellent NBA coach.

Lost in the incredible October that was the Red Sox was the absence of Jerry Remy, in seclusion following the summer arrest of his son for murdering his girlfriend.

Did you ever, even in your wildest dreams, think you’d see a day when average major-league players make millions a year?

How’d we miss out on Rob Ford, the crack-smokin’ nut job of a mayor in Toronto?

Kevin Garnett is off to a horrible start with the Nets.

Curtis Martin, the former Patriots and Jets running back, has been asked by the Dolphins to help come up with some ideas on how to change their culture.

The Friars need Kris Dunn back.

“12 Years a Slave” is too long and too predictable, but it packs an emotional wallop, no question about it, a cinematic indictment of this country’s Original Sin.

Did you see where the Sox owners took out a full-page ad in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to thank Cardinals fans for their Midwestern hospitality when the Sox were in St. Louis?

There’s no truth to the rumor that any Sox trade this winter will include a beard to be named later.

Or that the new Providence will come in two distinct categories: “The Knowledge District,” and the “Lack of Knowledge District.”

Or that Knute Rockne is turning over in his grave with the news that Snoop Dogg’s kid, a junior in suburban L.A. named Cordell Broadus, has been offered a football scholarship at Notre Dame.

If you look up “Obnoxious Owner” in the dictionary, odds are the Knicks’ James Dolan pops up.

And if you look up “Yesterday’s News,” there’s a picture of Ben Roethlisberger.

And if Ben Cherington wasn’t named the general manager of the year, there would have been an investigation.

If Whitey Bulger’s not the devil, he’s at least in the conversation.

The best player in Wednesday night’s game between PC and Brown was Brown senior guard Sean McGonagill.

History tells us that the Pats get better as the season goes on.

“Detroit: An American Autopsy,” by Charlie LeDuff, is a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in American cities.

Jose Iglesias came in second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, just in case you missed it.

Bill Marandola writes in to say everything going on in today’s NFL was happening in the early 1960s, portrayed in a TV sports documentary called “The Violent World of Sam Huff.”

Anyone seen the bear lately?

Sports Illustrated predicts four Big East basketball teams will play in the NCAA Tournament in March — Marquette, Creighton, Georgetown, Villanova — as the Friars get no love.

S.I. also has Harvard as the 20th best team in the country.

You know the sports world has gone flat-out bonkers, Bunky, when Stephen Drew turns down $14.1 million a year. Not Ted Williams. Not Willie Mays. Stephen Drew.

I’m all for pensions, but Prince Charles?

QUIZ ANSWER: Frank Thomas in 1993 and ’94.

I’d rather see people panhandling than “twerking,” but that’s just me.

This from TMZ, via the Boston Globe: It seems that Gronk will play himself in the upcoming “Entourage” movie that will begin filming in January.

The Knicks were more fun when they had Jeremy Lin.

Has Mike Napoli stopped partying yet?

I’ll be surprised if Richie Incognito ever plays again in the NFL.

Every generation thinks it invented sex.

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